How To Set Up A Trust

Knowing how to set up a trust is a useful skill to master when you want to safeguard cash and other financial assets. Setting up a trust used to be seen as a way of dodging tax rules but setting up a trust is a legal process that can have great benefits for you and your family.

How To Set Up A Trust?

Our expert trust solicitors can help anyone in England and Wales in setting up a trust fund. Our how-to guide shows how easy it can be to set up a trust. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Identifying the assets that you want to go into the trust
   Putting together a list of all of the assets that will be held in the trust and their values will save time later, when it comes to delineating the trust property.
2. Appointing a trustee Deciding on the individuals that you want to appoint as trustees is an important step. You can choose family members, and you should ideally choose a person or people that would reasonably be expected to outlive you. You can choose whoever you think would be best, but it is generally also a wise idea to choose individuals who have a good knowledge of financial affairs if they are going to be the one who manages the trust.
3. Decide who will benefit from the trust You should think about the proportion of assets or income that will pass to each beneficiary. The beneficiaries can include anyone in your family, whether that be a child, relation or civil partner.
4. Consider the terms you will be able to decide on all of the smaller details in conversation with your solicitor, but you can begin to think about what the main aims of your trust are straight away. There are many benefits of setting up a trust, and you can ensure that they specifically suit you.

What is the Cost of Setting up a Trust?

Typically, the cost of setting up a trust is roughly £1000 in solicitor fees. This may seem like quite a large amount of money, but the benefits that come from setting up a trust pay off over a period of time. You will also save money on income tax and inheritance tax when your assets are placed in a trust.

What are the Advantages of Trusts?

There are a number of advantages to setting up a trust, and there are also lots of different types of trusts such as a discretionary trust or mixed trusts. This means that you can almost always find a trust that will suit you. The main advantages of a trust include:

• Offering a level of protection and control of assets that other wealth management and estate planning options cannot match.
• To provide for an individual who is not capable of handling their own financial affairs
• The ability to pass wealth down through successive generations or to support charities
• The advantages it provides for managing and mitigating the effects of inheritance tax.

Read more on our setting up a trust page

How Our Wills and Probate Solicitors Can Help

Here at Cartwright King Solicitors, our experts can help you to set up a trust. Get in touch today to start the process.